25.5 cts Bisbee Turquoise Cabochon (#024)

Bisbee turquoise jewelry is highly coveted by collectors worldwide. The signature look for Bisbee turquoise is a dark lavender blue color with a deep chocolate brown to black matrix.  Some of the most distinctively recognizable Indian jewelry has been set and photographed containing classic Bisbee turquoise.  As with all turquoise, there is a wide variety of quality from the Bisbee mine where color and matrix patterns can vary a great deal.

The most productive period of the Bisbee turquoise mine was the 1950's and 1960's.  The mine has been closed since the early 1970's and is currently owned by Phelps Dodge Corp. Bisbee Mine. Arizona, Cochise County. Turquoise is a copper compound and, in the case of the Bisbee mine, is found in the open pit copper mine known as the Lavender Pit.   At this mine, it is typically found as stringers up to a few inches wide; as small nugget-like masses in granite and quartzite; or as minute stringers in massive pyrite.